Intel announces new Core X-series processors, features the new Core i9

Intel has announced the new Core X-series, the company's flagship series of enthusiast desktop processors. With the introduction of this series, Intel has also introduced the new Core i9 series of processors.

Based on the new X299/LGA2066 "Basin Falls" platform, the Core X-series has nine different products, of which five are being announced today and four will be arriving later. Customers will have a choice from 4 cores to 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 cores all the way at the top, making it one of the most diverse range on the market. Almost all models will have Intel's Hyper-Threading, thereby doubling the thread count.

The nine processors are split into Kaby Lake-X and Skylake-X. At the bottom of the pack are the two Kaby Lake-X parts, the Core i5-7640X and the Core i7-7740X.

The Core i5-7640X has 4 cores with no Hyper-Threading. It has 4.0GHz base clock speed and Turbo Boosts up to 4.2GHz. There's 6MB L3 cache, 16 PCIe 3.0 lanes, and two-channel DDR4-2666 memory support. It has a TDP of 112W and is priced at $242.

The Core i7-7740X has 4 cores and 8 threads with HT. It has 4.3GHz base clock speed and Turbo Boosts up to 4.5GHz. There's 8MB L3 cache, 16 PCIe 3.0 lanes, and two-channel DDR4-2666 memory support. It has a TDP of 112W and is priced at $339.

Moving on to the Skylake-X series, the base Core i7-7740X has 6 cores and 12 threads with HT. It has 3.5GHz base clock speed and Turbo Boosts up to 4.0GHz. There's 8.25MB L3 cache, 28 PCIe 3.0 lanes, and four-channel DDR4-2400 memory support. It has a TDP of 140W and is priced at $389.

The Core i7-7820X has 8 cores and 16 threads with HT. It has 3.6GHz base clock speed and Turbo Boosts up to 4.3GHz. It also has support for Intel Turbo Boost 3.0, which boosts the best core of the bunch to, in this case, 4.5GHz. There's 11MB L3 cache, 28 PCIe 3.0 lanes, and four-channel DDR4-2666 memory support. It has a TDP of 140W and is priced at $599.

Lastly, there is the Core i9-7900X, which has 10 cores and 20 threads with HT. It has 3.3GHz base clock speed, 4.3GHz Turbo Boost 2.0 clock speed and 4.5GHz Turbo Boost 3.0 clock speed. There's 13.75MB L3 cache, 44 PCIe 3.0 lanes, and four-channel DDR4-2666 memory support. It has a TDP of 140W and is priced at $999.

There are four more parts left, the i9-7920X, i9-7940X, i9-7960X, and i9-7980XE, however, not a lot of information has been revealed about them. All we know for now is that they have 12/24, 14/28, 16/32, and 18/36 core/thread count, and that they are priced at $1199, $1399, $1699, and $1999, respectively.

Further information and availability should be announced at Computex this week.